MS buying GitHub?

[TWPonKubuntu]

Thank you GG, you said it well.

[GreyGeek]

Companies and governments around the world trust Microsoft with their data. You couldn’t find a more reliable or trustworthy provider in the enterprise space. But that doesn’t make for good meme material, I guess.

Trust? A better word would be captivity. Windows fan boys like to point to Munich without looking into how Microsoft bought their way back into control of the IT dept.

Ignoring the fact the Linux runs all 500 of the world's top supercomputers, Wikipedia gives a list of Linux adopters around the world. Here is the list of US adopters:

U.S.

• In July 2001,^[25] the White House started switching their web servers to an operating system based on Red Hat Linux and using the Apache HTTP Server.^[26] The installation was completed in February 2009.^[27][28] In October 2009, the White House servers adopted Drupal, an open-source content management system software distribution.^[29][30]
• The United States Department of Defense uses Linux - "the U.S. Army is the single largest installed base for Red Hat Linux"^[31] and the US Navy nuclear submarine fleet runs on Linux,^[32] including their sonar systems.^[33]
• In June 2012, the US Navy signed a US$27,883,883 contract with Raytheon to install Linux ground control software for its fleet of vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) Northrup-Grumman MQ8B Fire Scout drones. The contract involves Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland, which has already spent US$5,175,075 in preparation for the Linux systems.^[34]
• In April 2006, the US Federal Aviation Administration announced that it had completed a migration to Red Hat Enterprise Linux in one third of the scheduled time and about US$15 million under budget. The switch saved a further US$15 million in datacenter operating costs.^[35][36]
• The US National Nuclear Security Administration operates the world's tenth fastest supercomputer, the IBM Roadrunner, which uses Red Hat Enterprise Linux along with Fedora as its operating systems.^[37]
• The city government of Largo, Florida uses Linux and has won international recognition for their implementation, indicating that it provides "extensive savings over more traditional alternatives in city-wide applications."^[38]

And that's not a recent list. All of the special effects you see on your Hollywood blockbuster movies are made by video editing software run on Linux servers and workstations. Most banks and retail businesses run Linux as their backend servers and some use Linux at the checkout stand. After getting their stealth RQ-170 drone hijacked by the Iranians the USAF switched to Linux because they determined that the hijackers hacked into the Windows software controlling the drone. Thanks to Microsoft Iran now has their own version of the RQ-170 for next to no research and development costs. How many have been or will be killed because of Microsoft's failure to maintain a secure OS remains to be counted.

Be sure and check out the Business and Scientific Institutions listings. For the last 10 years there has been a steady mass migration from Windows to Linux, primarily Ubuntu, Red Hat and SUSE. People, businesses and governments got tired of being on Microsoft's $$$ treadmill "upgrades" while being pilloried by blackhats at will. About the only field Windows still dominates is gaming, and PS4 and other gaming consoles are eating their lunch in that field as well. The IoT is powered by Linux.

Microsoft can see the handwriting on the wall. They used to own 95%+ of the OS space on personal computers. Latest estimates put that now less than half when including the latest small form, in which they own less than 1%. Microsoft used to call Linux a "cancer". Now, it is embracing Linux. It has installed Ubuntu's Bash in its OS, calling it "WSL". That doesn't stop people from setting up dual boot scenarios so they can play games on Win10 and do everything else on Linux. Microsoft purchased GitHub and moved their user development platform infrastructure to it. They have become a large contributor of GPL source code to the Linux kernel.

Microsoft is in business now ONLY because of the lock in they achieved ten+ years ago getting some businesses and governments to adopt their proprietary standards for documents and spreadsheets, just the way they coerced PC OEMs to install Windows on their products. Now they have so many historical documents using .doc and .xls, etc., that gov users can't drop Windows and still access some of their more complicated doc and xls files.

Forcing a consumer to purchase Windows as a condition for purchasing a DELL, HP or other PC is called "tying arrangements" by the Clayton Antitrust Act and is illegal. Microsoft successfully bypassed that illegality by negotiating with the DOJ about "bundling Explorer" with Windows, impeding the adoption of Netscape. In that trial Bill Gates was caught lying on the witness stand, using a doctored video which purported to show how to remove IE without breaking Windows, which wasn't possible at the time. MS was was convicted and appealed. Between the loss and the appeal they successfully used a political campaign to get Judge Jackson removed from the case and replaced by a Judge with a hyphenated last name, one who was MS friendly. She "negotiated" Microsoft's "punishment" (how often do you hear of a convicted felon negoiating his punishment with the judge?) which included installing 3 "monitors" on Microsoft's Redmond campus. Microsoft got to pick two of the three. Microsoft spent more time monitoring them than they did Microsoft because they were on Microsoft's LAN, Internet infrastructure and phone PBX. Microsoft probably knew how many squares of TP they used in their office bathrooms. Oh, part of the "punishment" included immunity from ALL other crimes they committed before the settlement in 2001. It worked. Microsoft's tying the purchase of PCs with the purchase of Windows was preserved, thus Microsoft dominated the PC market for the next 10-15 years.

But, hey, continue to enjoy your games, and when you have problems you can get help here. Many of us run Windows as well as Linux because we know that one does what one has to do in the face of criminal mischief.

[TWPonKubuntu]

Companies and governments around the world trust Microsoft with their data. You couldn’t find a more reliable or trustworthy provider in the enterprise space. But that doesn’t make for good meme material, I guess.

That sounds like they were made an offer they "could not refuse"... A la "The Godfather"... That is not trust, but fear.

[SpecialEd]

Companies and governments around the world trust Microsoft with their data. You couldn’t find a more reliable or trustworthy provider in the enterprise space. But that doesn’t make for good meme material, I guess.

Citation(s) needed.

[Annaleemarks]

Companies and governments around the world trust Microsoft with their data. You couldn’t find a more reliable or trustworthy provider in the enterprise space. But that doesn’t make for good meme material, I guess.

[jpenguin]

But not under jpenquin?

jpenguin on github
tux_peng on notabug

Sent from my E6810 using Tapatalk

[TWPonKubuntu]

Embrace, extend, and extinguish. It's a way of life for M$...

[GreyGeek]

On March 31, 2017, Brian Harry posted a blog about MS shutting down CodePlex on Dec 15, 2017. Today, MS & GitHub announced a $7.5 Billion dollar buyout of GitHub by Microsoft, using MS stock shares, not cash. One of the comments reflects exactly my experience with MS buying a technology and then abandoning it. Specifically, Visual Fox Pro.

– Microsoft release Product X
– Microsoft heavily promotes Product X, promising its the wave of the future
– Microsoft devs want to work on cool new technology, pitch it to management
– Management agrees, pulls plug on Product X
– Microsoft avoids telling community Prodct X is being wound down, instead claims its “still supported”
– Without active development, Product X hemorrhages users and market share
– Microsoft publicly announces Product X is being discontinued because it has low market share
– Devs that invested time, knowledge, and money into Product X are screwed
Sound familiar? The story of just about every product Microsoft has touched over the past 15 years.
Just a few short years ago you were announcing on this very blog how you are the one in charge of CodePlex and the MSDN blogs. Months later, all active development stopped on CodePlex, all MS teams moved their projects to Github, and the site was left to wither over the past few years. And *shock* – people stopped using CodePlex. So instead of having alternatives to Github, we’re down to de-facto monopoly with a company that is unprofitable and could disappear eventually.
Plus- MSDN blogs are still as big a pile of garbage as they have been for a decade.

MS embraces GitHub over a year ago, while simultaneously neglecting CodePlex, then they extended their GitHub embrace by moving their CodePlex developments to GitHub. Now, they have purchased GitHub.

Another comment in the blog predicted "Before long Microsoft will buy Github…remember if you can’t beat ’em buy ’em."
Buy 'em indeed.

IF history is any predictor of future behavior then I predict that GitHub is doomed.
MS bought Minecraft and promised continued support for all platforms. Now, new releases of Minecraft are moving away Java. Translation: those running Minecraft on Linux are out of luck. My grandsons have been slowing moved away from Minecraft and now don't play it, so it won't be a loss to me, but how often can you find good games that don't exploit sex and realistic violence?

[GreyGeek]

I like github, but I mirror on https://notabug.org/

Sent from my E6810 using Tapatalk

But not under jpenquin?

[jpenguin]

I like github, but I mirror on https://notabug.org/

Sent from my E6810 using Tapatalk

[GreyGeek]

IMO, a mesh running FreeNet would be a nice combo. FreeNet would allow you to create private blockchain tunnels to specific people, in addition to the entire mesh.

[TWPonKubuntu]

GG;

Thank you for the research links. Mesh popularity is growing and it is a good thing.

RE the speed of a given mesh network; at this point in the evolution of mesh, speed is (IMO) secondary to being able to bypass the current WWW / Internet. I can live with slower response in exchange for some better control over content and, perhaps, more privacy consciousness on the part of the people who maintain a mesh system.

I'm NOT saying that mesh is more private. It probably is equally porous and vulnerable to similar malware and attacks as the WWW. I'm referring to the mindset of those who run separate mesh networks...

[NickStone]

This is why Microsoft should buy $2 billion startup GitHub and turn it into a weapon against Amazon

http://uk.businessinsider.com/why-mi...18-6?r=US&IR=T

[GreyGeek]

My advocacy of mesh networks is not based on a desire to replace the current "internet". I want a means to communicate and share information between like minded people. That, for instance, means that a rural agricultural community could have server(s) which host local, national and international news and an encyclopedia of information which is accessible by only those in the community. That information archive may prove to be invaluable in the future...

An urban community would be no different in structure, but might have different content.

Key parts of a mesh network are:

Ability to use either radio or hardwired connections
Secure server(s)
Local Email services
Encyclopedia database, ala InfoGalactic (NOT wikipedia), for an education and knowledge base external to the current 'net.
VOIP services if voice contact is desired.

Specifically NOT subject to regulation by the international ICANN bureaucracy although the FCC will want to keep their thumb on a radio based system so there is a benefit to being able to use hardwired connections.

There needs to be an option to string wire from existing telephone poles, but this is heavily regulated and owned by both private businesses and government agencies.

Given that equipment was available, a small community might chose to install underground cable.

Another option is to use Amateur Radio for packet transmissions. Again, lots of bureaucracy and "red tape" with this, but it is an option now.

Those are good examples for mesh use.

Before I began my consulting business I wanted my kids to have a good education, so I moved to a town of 485 people along the South Platte River and taught there. Actually, living 5 miles outside that town my kids went to a one room school house and I wasn't disappointed in their education. That town would be an example of a perfect location for a mesh network but using Ethernet instead of WiFi for the "trunk line". The server would be at the town Library and cat-5 or better Ethernet lines would be wired along all the major streets with booster routers every 100 meters. The booster routers would radiate WiFi signals to the homes and businesses. The library server could be the "cloud", where people could upload encrypted files for storage.

I visited Phillymesh when I looked at P2P & mesh stuff and it wasn't far along, maybe 50 users. It's come a long way now:
https://www.fc00.org/#fc05:3ab5:1182...0a85:b6a4:b241
but it's lost almost an entire wing. Perhaps 500 - 1000 users now. Still, not bad.
https://phillymesh.net/wp-content/up.../fc00map06.png


https://www.metamesh.org/community-wifi-resources
http://gowasabi.net/ Saint Louis
https://tomesh.net/map/ Toronto mesh network Just started
http://gowasabi.net/content/coverage-area Maybe 50-60 users
http://sdmesh.net/ Just talking
http://www.pittmesh.net/ 65 sites in Pittsburg
https://www.metamesh.org/ (supported by pittmesh -- lots of tech info
and their list of mesh networks
https://www.metamesh.org/community-wifi-resources

The movement has gone international. Here is list of meshes by country
http://www.thefullwiki.org/List_of_w...orks_by_region

If a mesh were made by folks connecting wifi to wifi through bridges then the speed of the net would depend on the slowest connection between your wifi and the home base, say the library in my fictitious town. My wifi chip on this laptop gives me 250+Mbps connection, but if I am downloading I can go any faster than my write to HD speed from a full buffer, which is about 100Mbps. IF there was a wifi or two between me and some central hub and their connection speed was 802.11a or b or some mis configured g, then my n connection can be no faster.

[TWPonKubuntu]

My advocacy of mesh networks is not based on a desire to replace the current "internet". I want a means to communicate and share information between like minded people. That, for instance, means that a rural agricultural community could have server(s) which host local, national and international news and an encyclopedia of information which is accessible by only those in the community. That information archive may prove to be invaluable in the future...

An urban community would be no different in structure, but might have different content.

Key parts of a mesh network are:

Ability to use either radio or hardwired connections
Secure server(s)
Local Email services
Encyclopedia database, ala InfoGalactic (NOT wikipedia), for an education and knowledge base external to the current 'net.
VOIP services if voice contact is desired.

Specifically NOT subject to regulation by the international ICANN bureaucracy although the FCC will want to keep their thumb on a radio based system so there is a benefit to being able to use hardwired connections.

There needs to be an option to string wire from existing telephone poles, but this is heavily regulated and owned by both private businesses and government agencies.

Given that equipment was available, a small community might chose to install underground cable.

Another option is to use Amateur Radio for packet transmissions. Again, lots of bureaucracy and "red tape" with this, but it is an option now.